CogDiss Book Club Chapter 5
Added 2021-08-17 12:53:57 +0000 UTCDiscuss!
Comments
The whole spaceship conspiracy made me think of all the iterations of the "it's a cover up" explanation. The belief in a conspiracy help us justify and dismiss a lot of the information against our beliefs, if not all. Sometimes the idea of a conspiracy might sound like something "modern" related to government, world orders, or health cover ups to maintain people sick because it's more profitable than selling the cure. But this way of thinking might had arisen when we tried to understand our world. Take for instance the conviction of some christian denominations where, if you don't believe exactly what they profess, you either are being misled by the devil, or you are in service to him. Either you have been convinced by the conspirator, or you are part of the conspiracy. In my experience, this might be one of the hardest challenge to overcome when trying to help someone to question their beliefs, since they are going to be "right" no matter what you may say. It's an "us vs them" explanation. One that should trigger our skeptical evaluation kit when we say things like "you don't like this book because you don't understand it", or "if you believe in x thing, you must be stupid or so brainwashed that you're beyond any help". (Spanish is my native language, so I hope I didn't make any mistake or translated spanish/chilean idioms wrongly. Saludos)
Diego Guzmán
2021-08-19 11:57:17 +0000 UTC
